Letter to the editor: Working for experimental treatments

I am 23 and was diagnosed with an inoperable glioblastoma brain tumor in November 2016. Doctors gave me six to nine months to live. However, after 34 rounds of radiation, four different chemos and many, many prayers, as of my last scan, there was no evidence of the tumor.

I credit this to God and to my doctor’s willingness to try new things. She put me into a trial surgery that determines which chemotherapies would work best. I am now on a chemo pill that I will take for the rest of my life, as long as it continues to prevent the cancer from returning.

I recently teamed up with the Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs to help give a voice to terminally ill patients seeking experimental treatments.

President Trump signed into law Right to Try, which allows terminally ill patients to try experimental treatments if their already approved treatments aren’t working. The Abigail Alliance is trying to get the Freedom of Treatment Act introduced in state Houses and Senates. It would require insurance companies to cover the costs of experimental treatments for terminally ill patients.

I am looking for people who agree with this to join me on a team that will work to get this bill introduced and passed in Pennsylvania.

All terminally ill patients have the right to try and save their lives. It should not be up to the government or insurance companies to determine if we live or die. This is something all political parties can agree on.

Kyle Coddington

Boswell